A Host of Stars Set to Invade Avalon This Wednesday

The stars will come out to play this Wednesday night as Essendon Ford present the 32nd annual President’s Cup for Sprintcars with a world class field entered. The impressive American contingent is at a record 15 cars while 56 Sprintcars in total will battle for the rich $10,000 first prize. Defending President’s Cup winner Robbie Farr is among the entries and will be leading the charge to keep the touring American’s at bay.

Avalon management are understandably ecstatic with the response to the event and are expecting a great night of racing given the calibre of racers entered. Avalon’s Jeff Drew said the event is one of the highlights on the entire season’s calendar.

“It’s incredible to think that we have attracted this many cars to the President’s Cup.”

“The fan support for this event is second to none, everyone wants to see how good the American’s really are and we have to go back to 2006 when an American won this race last.”

“The Australian drivers have as good a shot at winning as anyone now, they all run really good equipment and the likes of Farr, Tatnell and Bell have dominated the last six years of this race.”

Farr is a two time winner of the event and Brooke Tatnell also returns as a three time winner while along with Bell, Boxing Night winner David Murcott is the only other President’s Cup champion among the entries. No doubt this quartet will be in command of the battle to defeat the US imports while other Australian contenders include speedy 25 year veteran Trevor Green, Mount Gambier’s Steven Lines who is already a two time winner at Avalon this summer plus Albury gun Grant Anderson who are all among a strong list.

The American’s are led by Shane Stewart, Tim Kaeding and Kyle Hirst. This trio have been racing across the country since Boxing Day while Stewart was in action prior to Christmas also. Stewart is a four time Knoxville 360 Nationals winner while Kaeding was the best performed driver in California this past season. All three have already been to Avalon this season when they contested World Series Sprintcars in December. Caleb Griffith and Danny Smith were also in action at the same event. All five have entered for Wednesday night.

The contingent also features Tennessee ace Jason Sides who is fresh from a pair of wins in Sydney last weekend against the finest opposition World Series Sprintcars can offer. This World of Outlaw star will be keen to continue his great form while joining him will be returning tourists Terry McCarl, David Gravel, Wayne Johnson, Tim Shaffer and Daryn Pittman.

Much of the attention centres on the appearance of young super star Kevin Swindell who will drive the second Essendon Ford Sprintcar as the 23 year old teams with local Domain Ramsay. Swindell is fresh from victory at the annual Chili Bowl event on Tulsa, Oklahoma where a gathering of stars from various motorsport disciplines gather to compete at an indoor Speedcar event. Not only did Swindell win this year’s edition, he has won the past four Chili Bowl events leaving an impressive array of challengers in his wake.

The Sprintcars will contest time trials with the top 30 qualifiers going directly into the heat races while the remaining cars will contest a non-qualifiers event in an attempt to be among the first six cars to finish, tagging onto the back of the heat races. Six heat races plus a B-main and then the 25 lap A-main will conclude the night’s events.

Public gates are set to open from 3:30pm this Wednesday night with racing set to start from the slightly earlier time than usual of 6:30pm.